Money Cat is the brainstorm of longtime friends and Johnson & Wales University classmates David Gilbert of Dallas, Texas, and Kevin Sandes of Portland. Gilbert, 40, developed the Thai chicken concept after traveling extensively and living in Asia. Sandes, 42, also traveled a lot and several years ago started Urban Sugar Donuts, a food truck in Portland, and later renamed it The Eighty 8 Donut Cafe. He also opened a shop at Sugarloaf.